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Author Topic:   "Just a Theory"
dwise1
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Posts: 5930
Joined: 05-02-2006
Member Rating: 5.8


Message 1 of 5 (773188)
11-25-2015 2:33 PM


I'm starting to prepare a new page for my Creation/Evolution site at http://cre-ev.dwise1.net/ . Its theme will be something to the effect of "statements a creationist should avoid since they immediately reveal that he doesn't know what he is talking about." A few candidates are "why are there still monkeys?", "but they're STILL MOTHS!", and "evolution is just a theory."
Of course, the problem with that last one is that the creationist is substituting a scientific term with a colloquial meaning in which a theory is the same thing as a SWAG ("some wild-a** guess"). Instead, in science a theory is a comprehensive model based on the evidence which explains phenomena (AKA "facts") and which has been tested repeatedly and has not been invalidated by that exhaustive testing. Though what I just wrote does not do it justice.
Several years ago I heard somebody offer a well-rehearsed response to "it's only a theory" that covered all the pertinent points and did so as a piece of highly polished patter. Unfortunately, I can just barely remember it, though I would like to include it in my new page. What I remember starts with something like, "Oh, you mean it's just a comprehensive ...", and includes what I mention in the second paragraph of this message.
Has anybody encountered that response or a similar one that he could present here? Or craft one himself?

Replies to this message:
 Message 3 by Emotive, posted 11-26-2015 2:07 PM dwise1 has replied

  
dwise1
Member
Posts: 5930
Joined: 05-02-2006
Member Rating: 5.8


Message 4 of 5 (773905)
12-10-2015 2:38 PM
Reply to: Message 3 by Emotive
11-26-2015 2:07 PM


Re: Is this any help?
Actually, what I was looking for is a short informative verbal response much less than ten seconds long. Creationists memorize "unanswerable questions" designed to stump us (eg, the list of questions in the Question Evolution campaign for creationist students to inundate their teachers with), so shouldn't we prepare informative responses with enough punch in them to shock their brains into starting to think? For that purpose, we would need no more than a few sentences (or a single extended sentence), not fifteen paragraphs; pack a lot into a small packet, like depleted-uranium rounds but with beneficial side-effects.
Here is basically what I was looking for:
quote:
Creationist: Well, evolution is just a theory!
Us: So then evolution is just a well-substantiated, well-supported, well-documented explanation for our observations which is supported by all the relevant observations and which, along with its predictions, has been constantly scrutinised and repeatedly tested for over 150 years and has survived all that testing to be our best explanation for our observations.
Then maybe, after the creationist has picked up his jaw from where he had dropped it, the discussion can proceed into those fifteen paragraphs.
BTW, another less informative response would be to point out to them that "The Bible is just a book!". Less informative, but by pulling their own deceptive game on them might also get them to start to think. Or at least to discuss their claim, something that creationists seem to hate more than anything else.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 3 by Emotive, posted 11-26-2015 2:07 PM Emotive has not replied

  
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